Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-03-11

| place. am old and well stricken in years.
| | can do no good. might as well die My
| days are almost over. He cannot be spared.
| Take me-" And they accepted the sacrifice
| Wonderful sacrificed you say, but not SO
| wonderful as that found in the Gospel, for
| we deserved to die, aye, we were sentenced
| when Christ, not worn out with years but In
| the flush of his youth, said "Save that man
| from going down to the pit; am the ran
| SON. Put his burdens on my shoulders Let
| his stripes fall on my back. Take
| my heart for his heart Let me die that he
may live." Shall it be told to-day in Heaven
| that notwithstanding all those wounds, and
all that blood, and all those tears and all that
agony you would not accept hima
Was it for crimes that had done.
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity, grace unknown,
| And love beyond degree
There is no woe amid the surroundings of
| that scene that impresses me more than that
| that of his own mother. You need not point
her out to me- can see by the sorrow, the
the anguish, the woe, by the upthrown hands.
| That all means mother. "Oh," you say, "why
didn't she go down to the foot of the hill and
sit with her back to the scene? 1t was too
horrible for her to look upon" Do you not
know when child is in anguish or trouble
| it always makes heroine of a mothers Take
| her away, you say, from the cross. You can
| not drag her away. She will keep on look
ing AS long as her son breathes she will
stand there looking Oh, what a scene
it was for tender hearted mother
to look upon! How gladly she would
have sprung to his relief 1t was
her son. Her sonI How gladly she would
| have clambered up on the cross and hung
there herself if her son could have been re-
| lieved! How strengthening she would have
been to Christ if she might have come close
by him and soothed him! Oh, there was a
| good deal in what the little sick child said,
upon whom a surgical operation of a painful
nature must be performed. The doctor said:
| "That child won't live through this operation
unless you encourage him. You go in and
| get his consent" The father told him all the
| doctor said, and added: "Now, John, will you
| go through with it? Will you consent to ita"
He looked very pale, and he thought a
minute, and said: eyes, father, if you will hold
my hand, will" So the father held his hand,
and led him straight through the peril. Oh,
woman, in your hour of anguish, whom do
you want with you? Mother. Young man,
in your hour of trouble, who do you want to
console you? Mother. If the mother of
Jesus COulu have Udh0u UuOSS DlttuluS
feet into her lap! If she might have taken
the dying head on her bosom! If she might
| have said to Him: cit will soon be over,
| Jesus; it will soon be over, and we will meet
again and it will be all we'll" But no, she
dared not come up SO close. They would
have struck her back with their hammers.
| They would have kicked her down the hill.
There can be no alienation at all. Jesus
must suffer and Mary must look. I suppose
| she thought Of the birth hour in Bethlehem
| I suppose she thought of the time when with
| her boy in her bosom she fastened on in the
| darkness in the fight towards Egypt. I sup
| pose she thought of his boyhood, when he
| was the joy of her heart I suppose she
| thought of the thousand kindnesses he had
| done her, not forsaking her or forgetting her,
| even in his last moment, but turning to John
| and saying: "There is mother; take her with
| you She is old now. She cannot help her.
| self. Do for her just as would have done
| for her if I had lived. Be very tender and
| gentle with her. Behold thy mother!" She
| thought it all over, and there is no memory
| like mothers memory and there is no woe
! like mothers VICE.
| Iremark again: This is a tender scene be-
| cause it is Christian reunion. Why was it
| that in the seasonal meeting, when I asked
| woman if it were her son who sat next to her,
| making profession of his faith, she made no
| answer; but after moment, trying to con-
| troll her emotion she burst into tears. l said
within myself, she need not tell me the story.
| It is the old story of prodigal got back.
| "The dead is alive, and the lost is found" Oh,
| how many families there are that rejoice to-
| gether to-day.
These Christians during the rest of the year,
| perhaps, will not know much about each
| other You go in one circle of society, these
| go in some other circle of society, and this
| one travels in that path and this one the
| other path; but to-day we all come on one
| platform, and we make one confession and
| we cling to one cross, and we gaze upon one
| death anguish. 1t seems to me this morning
| not like church, but like great family circle,
| and we Join hands around the cross of Christ
| and we say "One lord, one faith, one bap-
| tis1n one cross, one Christ, one doxology, one
| heavenl" While / stand here it seems to me as
| if this communion table, which is only seven
| or eight feet long, and three or four feet
| wide, widens until all the Christians Of our
| own denomination can sit at it; and still the
| table widens until all the Christians in this
| land of all names and denominations come
| and sit at it; and still the table widens until
| it bridges the sea, and Christians on the
| other side of the Atlantic come and sit at
it; and still that table widens, until the re-
| deemed of heaven mingle in the communion.
| Church militant, church triumphant.
One army Of the living God
To His command we bow,
Part of the host have crossed the flood
And part are crossing
| Again, my friends, this is an absorbing
scene, because it arouses so many precious
| memories We look back and remember the
| days of our childhood when, long before we
| knew the meaning of the bread and the wine,
| we sat in the side pews on sacramental days,
! or in the galleries, and looked as our fathers,
| mothers and older brothers and sisters sat at
| the communion. Or, if we sat with them, we
pulled at mothers dress and said:
:'What does that mean? What is that in
the cups What is that on the platew o,
! yes; we remember those sacramental days of
| our boyhood We remember how much
| more tender father was on that day than on
any other day We remember how mother
Stood and without saying one word looked
at us, and her eyes got full of tears. Oh, the
dear cid SOUL They have gone But until
the day of our death we will associate this
holy ordinance with their memory. And
| when OH work on earth is done we will just
20 up and sit down beside them il the
heavenly church, as we used to sit beside
them in the earthly church, and then we will
drink new wine in our fathers kingdom.
Behold the saints, beloved of God,
| Washed are their robes in Jesus blood;
| Brighter than angels, 10! they shine,
| Their glores splendid and sublime.
remark again: This scene is tender to-day
because it is confessional You and 1 re-
member the time when if a man had charged
us with anything like imperfection or wrong
doing, we would have thrown ourselves back
on our honor and said: "You don't know
who you are talking to. 1 shall resent such an
insult to my honor and integrity" We do not
feel that way to-day. Aswe gaze upon the sac
rifice of Christ and think of what we have been
and what we have done, our hearts melt
within us. We see one dying accursed for
our sin. and we hear him in his dying words
begging for our service, and yet how little
service we have rendered. OF this short life
we have begrudged God even fragment
Alas! alasl Some of us have lived out the
most of our days, and yet we have rendered
f<G God hot nnJ1ld